Patsy had no shorts left that fit from last year.  It has suddenly turned warm, and the situation was getting desperate.  I do have some money set aside for clothes for her, as she has grown, but want to stretch it as far as possible.  So, as I usually do, I started praying that God would lead me to the right bargains.

I’ve had it in my mind that I wanted to try some garage sales, but have not had time during the past few weeks to go to any.  In fact, I have been to only 4-5 in the past year, because I’ve been  too busy to spare the time.  On Friday morning, when I drove up to  Walgreens to get Ja’Ana’s finished graduation invitations, I saw a sign and stopped.  And, what do you know?  I hit the jackpot.  I got 4 pairs of jeans and 1 pair of sweat pants, all in sizes I was hoping would fit, for $1 a pair.  Here’s the “God thing.”  Every single pair fit her, even though they said different sizes on the tags.  I would have been happy with 1 or 2 that fit for that price, but to have all 5 fit?  Definitely a blessing. (I would have donated any that did not fit, and still felt like it was a bargain for $5.)

She decided to keep one pair long, as they fit and were short length like she is, removing the need to hem them or walk on the bottoms of them.

The sweat pants will be for when we go to the beach this summer or for after swimming. There is no picture of them, but they are basic.

The other 3 were turned into shorts.  Rob saw some in a store with eyelet lace on the bottom, so we decided to try that for 2 pairs.  The other pair was just cut off and rolled up.

The lace was free.  I have a bin with lace from the past from either yard sales or leftover from sewing projects.  I feel very happy and blessed to have made such a great start on her summer wardrobe.  It was a pretty satisfying way to spend $5.

Here’s how I turned them into shorts.

1.  Cut the jeans off.  I cut the first pair off a little long, tried them on her, then cut it off some more.  The roll-up ones ended up at about 9″ and then they were rolled.  That’s all I did.  That took 5 minutes.  The others took longer.  They started at around 5 or 6 inches, then the lace was put on.  Patsy is very short, so if you are making some for a taller person, cut them longer. You can always cut them off more or roll them up farther after you try them on.  You can never put fabric back after you cut it off:)
2. I placed the lace right side down onto the right side of the shorts.  I folded the end over, so that a raw edge would not show when I was finished.  I lined that fold up with the inner crotch seam so it would not be obvious.  I then serged around the entire leg, attaching the lace, overlapping when I got back around to where I started.  The serger cut off the excess lace and finished the edge.  If you don’t have a serger, just sew around, then cut the edges even.  (My lace was too wide, so I cut some off while I serged).
3. When I got back around to where I started, I angled the lace off when I overlapped it.  This keeps it from showing from the front, and the folded-over lace from the previous picture is what shows.  Then I sewed lace to the other leg and turned it right side around.
4. Then I topstitched the right side down to hold it all neatly in place.  I used thread that matched the jeans, and a long stitch.  When I got to the parts where I needed to sew over the seam, I pulled gently to get the machine to go over those lumps, because by this time, I was sewing over a double seam and it was bulky.  (It was double because it was folded over.  I was pleased with how they turned out, and now she is ready for some upcoming warm days:)